Stu wrote:I'm pretty sure you could still buy this new from Tolkien.co.uk until fairly recently (I'm referring to the Alan Lee signed version limited to 500 copies with the different information sheet, but otherwise identical to the non-signed one). They took a LONG time to sell.

I can't image that anyone would ever pay $500 for it (but if anyone wants to, I have a spare one in a box )

They could ask me as well, as I also have a spare.

I am struggling with the £110 price on this UK 1961 3rd edition Hobbit and the 'acceptable' condition from the seller, not a lot to go on from the seller apart from a picture of the 'acceptable' binding.

'Acceptable' is such a silly term for eBay to have forced on book buyers. What is acceptable to one person might be completely unacceptable to someone else. It really is meaningless. Reading between the lines, the term usually seems to be used to mean 'knackered'.